BOOK: Miner Indiscretions – a humorous look at the gold hunt

Miner Indiscretions by Jon Ardeman promises to be a rollicking look at the hunt for gold. This is a hilarious, action-packed story following Timothy, who starts his career as a junior geologist on a modern deep gold mine in South Africa. Unexpectedly and ignominiously dismissed from this post, he manages to get a new job exploring for gold on the dilapidated Yellow Snake mine in rural KwaZulu-Natal. [caption id="attachment_1003720267" align="alignleft" width="216"] Enjoy an entertaining look at the hunt for gold with Miner Indiscretions.[/caption] All is not as it seems and faced with closure of the rundown old mine, he joins with the eccentric locals in a series of desperate scams and highly illegal schemes to try to keep the mine going. Timothy struggles through encounters with African wildlife, consultants, riots, ghosts, floods, government officials, explosions and a very frustrating sex life in an attempt to find some actual gold in time to save the unique tight-knit community. The author knows his topic well. Ardeman’s geological career has been in many guises – in exploration, mining, consultancy, conservation and research. He has worked as a National Park guide, a nature warden looking after tadpoles and orchids, as a researcher digging up cow shed floors looking for Ordovician brachiopods and preparing dinosaur bones for a museum display. Enthused by these experiences, Jon sought further adventures, and headed to Africa where he worked as a geologist on various mines for more than a decade. He returned to university, and after a few years of academic research and consultancy, Jon went back to mining and precious metal exploration. His travels have taken him from the Arctic to the Equator, from North America and Siberia, to Europe, Australia, Asia and back to Africa. To order a copy of Miner Indiscretions in paperback for US$12.95 or as a Kindle e-book for US$3.18, go to http://amzn.to/2hMreNl. To learn about Ardeman’s other books, visit his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/jon.t.ardeman.